Well, you could ask a bunch of sax players on the internet that you never met, orrr..... you could go back to the frickin doctor. Sheesh.

 

What Pete said.

But let me add this. You might go to an allergy specialist. I'm also in Texas and the pollen allergies two days ago were absolutely horrible. I just couldn't do anything because of them. I've had asthma in the past, and once you know both asthma and allergies, one can easily tell the differences, but maybe you can't, in which case I recommend your seeing an allergist.

 

my doctor told me that I had asthma the last time I visited her.

This is your answer.

What makes you more qualified than your DOCTOR to decide whether or not you have asthma? wow.

 

Everyone should always challenge their Doctors. Medicine isn't that exact of a science. The doctors are very often making educated guesses about issues that are hard to figure out.

A patient, should study their own issues and be prepared to have in depth discussions with their doctors about what is happening.

Your body isn't a car which you drop off at a mechanic and if they get it wrong... you get a different one.

So, I claim... yes talk to your Doctor and talk to your friends and talk to other sax players and do a bunch of research.

Just don't be passive.

 

I think I have asthma,
my doctor told me that I had asthma the last time I visited her.
I just disregarded her as I didn't think I have asthma.But recently, I keep getting insufficient amount of air when playing as I just can't breathe in enough.
Yesterday, we had a parade practice at school
It was just walking around our practice field, I've done it twice already. But I just couldn't play my horn as I was marching.
The music isn't difficult at all, I played it last year too.
The thing was, I couldn't breathe.
I lost complete control of my breath while marching the whole time.
This had never happened to me in my life.Regardless of being sick, or using an improper neckstrap in the past, I never had this problem.
Not even in marching band season, which was a few months ago.
I'm guessing if I have asthma, its getting worse.
Anyone have an idea?

If you've never had a problem with your breathing why would your doctor have told you at your last visit that you have asthma?
If you were actually diagnosed with asthma the doctor would have given your parent a prescription for an inhaler or other form of medication to control the symptoms.
Something just doen't seem right with your statements....

 

my doctor told me that I had asthma the last time I visited her . . .
I'm guessing if I have asthma, its getting worse.
Anyone have an idea?

You visited your doctor. Your doctor diagnosed the problem. Why in the world would you ask us for ideas? Go back to your doctor and get an inhaler. See if it helps. Oh, and you might want to run this situation by your parents, too (instead of us).

 

LOL yeah... I think he has asthma. But I'm just some mysterious internet dweller so what the @#$% do I know?

 

Lawdy, lawdy, lawdy. Has anybody taken into account the OP's previous threads or posts and the fact that he's, what, in the 9th grade?

Of course that doesn't mean that a young teen shouldn't participate in a doctor's treatment and diagnosis, but yo! many of you seem to be jumping from the questions of a 9th grader who has already been to the doctor - and what the doctor might have said and done is already a bit ambiguous as reported to us - to the latest opinions on how a mature, experienced patient takes responsibility for his treatment at the hands of his doctor. Surely this is a bit overkill for the young man and I wonder how it applies to him.

It would seem to me, that one of the better answers to his dilemma would to return to the doctor, explain his symptoms and make sure he understands the doctor's diagnosis and suggestions. I would also recommend that a responsible adult be present at this consultation.

 

If a Doctor told me (ok i am a few years beyond being a 9th grader) that I had asthma, or cancer or athletes foot... I would learn as much as I could about the issue, what causes it, what sets of attacks and how it is treated, what the treatment complications are.

Mike, my father was pretty much killed by high blood pressure medicine that set off an extremely rare aversion to food. It took a trip to Emery University where they figured it out after the local doctors admitted they were clueless. His health went downhill from that point on.

Do you think they have some sort of all inclusive diagnosis manual that takes them through a set of questions that conclusively (I will be much more generous then you) 90% of the time for any issue more complicated then the common cold?

Now take this example, Gary asked if the OP might not have been exposed to larger then normal allergens such as pollen that day? Would the doctor with their limited time to research a single patient have time to do the research? How about an involved patient? Would such exposure to an allergen cause an attack? If the patient doesn't make the effort and the doc doesn't have the time, then who would?

 

I used to like patients to be actively involved. Eg "Why do you think I've got asthma, Doc?" "Because your PEFR is reduced, you have a family history of atopy, you've no industrial exposure, you're a teenager and you're wheezing like a deep sea diver." "Thanks Doc, how do I deal with it?"

However, alternative conversations with those "actively involved" weren't so positive.

Eg "I think you have asthma." "No, I haven't."

Or, "Some guy on a saxophone forum said it might be due to back problems. Why haven't you ordered a total body scan?"

Or, "I don't want inhalers or advice - all I want is to be like I used to be."

Or, "The woman at the traditional medicine shop said the shape of my ears means it's my spleen. Why haven't you referred me to a surgeon?"

Or the commonest, "But I can't tell my cat not to sleep on the bed - she'll pine."

 

although it is true that doctors don't get it always right it is also true that they are equipped, better than anyone else, to cure and care for people. Asthma is a illness that can be caused by many different causes indeed and it would require some tests to establish what exactly causes the asthmatic response to determine its therapy. Of course every single medical case has examples of other cases (similar or not) where some doctor somewhere got it wrong and every doctor(like every other professional) everywhere can **** it up.

I will give a painful example. My father had terminal lung cancer , along with a long list of other diseases , ( the first doctor who established his cancer had said that his father had had the same disease and that he suggested, at that stage and in the condition my father was in to not attempt any therapy because it was just pointless and would have only protracted my father 's agony and he was right) his left lung will fill with fluid (which had to be extracted periodically) and he was on oxygen to help him breathe . Anyway one day, towards the end,actually the day before he died, we find my father had developed an uncontrollable tremor (my father had also Parkinson's disease) we were in the summer holidays and was difficult to find his doctor so another doctor is called, a friend of my brother, he comes and diagnoses my father as to suffer from a loss of electrolytes , we didn't really trust his explanation and diagnosis and called his normal doctor who had to come from his holiday location when he entered the room he said that my father was clearly suffering from Hypoxemia due to the fact that the fluid had filled almost completely his lungs.


So, obviously, the doctor who had diagnosed a lack of electrolytes was wrong and I was very angry at him, but on the other hand I am not a doctor and he is a qualified and successful professional who does many diagnoses everyday and might have not been familiar with that kind of pathology.

Does that mean that I have reduced faith in the medical profession? Not at all, I just got , yet another proof that doctors are fallible but I knew that already.

There is very little doubt that if a doctor tells you that you show Asthmatic symptoms that you have those, they are a symptom , which means an external indication of something out of the ordinary, not the disease itself. I assume that he or she tested you with a spirometer which will give him or her the first indication to assume that you have a condition that affects your lungs.

But in order to have confirmation of your condition and especially to assess the causes of it you would need to conduct other tests which include an allergy test and an X-ray test.

All the tests help the doctor forming a diagnosis by a process of detection and elimination and ultimately you can always ask another doctor for a second opinion.


Some people though just refuse medical diagnosis. I have diabetes type II , that gives me many problems . A friend of mine always tell me that his father also suffered diabetes but , at a certain point of his life he encountered a healer, this healer told him that he didn't need the medicines and that by appropriate macrobiotic diet and his help as an healer (by subjecting himself to regular " impositions (of the healer's) hands" ) he would have lived diabetes free.
Anyway so he did, after a while he went to see his regular doctor who said that his blood tests were ok (this is a sort of a miracle I must admit!) and he told the doctor that he wasn't using any medicines anymore. The doctor was horrified and said,: " You must resume therapy at once , if you don't you are putting yourself in risk of death " he left the doctor and carried on his new regime, without any medicines, life looked much better, my friend always says that his father was " cured" .......but I say, because I know, that few months after the doctor's prediction my friend's father, as predicted, died .......maybe he died happier because of not using the medicines anymore but he died nonetheless.

Trust your doctors, if you are not convinced, ask a second opinion but do not refuse a diagnosis outright because you don't think so, they generally know better.

 

I have asthma, and have had it since I was a child. It went into remission (common with childhood asthma), but returned in my 30s.

Chunsoo, don't mess with it - if you need to confirm the diagnosis with another physician (say, a lung specialist), by all means do so, but get some appropriate treatment once you've confirmed the diagnosis.

Yes, allergies to pollen and the like can trigger it. One of the big problems with asthma (especially for teenagers due to compliance issues LOL), is that you have to keep treating it every day. No you may not have breathing troubles all the time, but it can come on suddenly.

Repeating, do not mess with this. Go back to your MD, or go see another right away, and if the diagnosis is confirmed get treatment. With treatment, it will not affect your ability to play at all. In fact, playing may help you. But if you have asthma you have to treat it.

 

The original post only refers to shortness of breath while playing. That explains maybe why the question was posted here. No need to get down on Chunsoo for referring it to people here.
I had childhood asthma and now have asthma because I live in a polluted city where 1 in 7 people have asthma. Certainly the answer is to see a doctor, probably a different one (on the assumption that the first diagnosis wasn't convincing, and hence the post here?).
As Skeller said, this is serious. You can't solve this on line.

 

If it’ll make you feel better, in my experience, every person I know with Asthma and that played the sax, trumpet or other wind instrument say that their condition improved over the years from playing the said instrument. Although I’m not a doctor and cannot confirm this is absolutely true, I am somewhat not surprised that playing a wind instrument could be beneficial for Asthma sufferers.

This said, that you suddenly developed Asthma; I don’t know why you did. Maybe you became allergic to something in your environment, whatever it is, your doctor certainly knows what he’s talking about.

Anyway, my point is: So you developed Asthma – Not trying to minimize anything but a lot of people do – and I’m sure there are quite a few on this forum, so maybe it could be a good opportunity to ask them how they cope with the Asthma while keep playing the saxophone.

Cheers

 

If it'll make you feel better, in my experience, every person I know with Asthma and that played the sax, trumpet or other wind instrument say that their condition improved over the years from playing the said instrument. Although I'm not a doctor and cannot confirm this is absolutely true, I am somewhat not surprised that playing a wind instrument could be beneficial for Asthma sufferers.

This said, that you suddenly developed Asthma; I don't know why you did. Maybe you became allergic to something in your environment, whatever it is, your doctor certainly knows what he's talking about.

Anyway, my point is: So you developed Asthma - Not trying to minimize anything but a lot of people do - and I'm sure there are quite a few on this forum, so maybe it could be a good opportunity to ask them how they cope with the Asthma while keep playing the saxophone.

Cheers

I've heard the same thing about asthma and wind instruments. In fact, I spent some time with Victor Goines this summer (plays with Wynton Marsalis in his septet/JALCO) and he said that he had asthma as a kid and his mother bought him a clarinet to help with it and that's how he was introduced to the instrument. Much to the benefit of the rest of us!